News

It’s about loving the coastal lifestyle

BY STEVE CARD, Of the News-Times

NEWPORT — Pete Sanok and his fiancée, Brittany Heins, have embraced the lifestyle they discovered when they moved to the Oregon coast — so much so that they formed a business called Specifically Pacific to promote that way of life.

“I moved out here from Chicago,” Sanok said. “One of the things about Chicago was the traffic was just terrible. When I was out here, I was driving on the (interstate) 5 outside of Portland and got stuck in traffic. I felt those same frustrations and anxieties that you feel in your chest that reminded me of Chicago.” But a few weeks later, when Sanok got stuck in construction while driving on Highway 101, he didn’t feel that same way. “I looked to the left and saw the mountains, I looked to the right and saw the ocean, and I just thought, ‘My gosh, I live here.’”

That was the start of the 101 design that Sanok and Heins have begun marketing through their business. People may have noticed the 101 sticker starting to show up on vehicles in the area. Specifi - cally Pacifi c also produces the 101 logo on sunglasses, pint glasses, T-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, hats and more. All are hand-printed with nontoxic, water-based ink.

“It represents that coastal lifestyle, not having to always be in a hurry to get everywhere, and all of the things that go with the coast,” Sanok said.

The first experience in retail for the Depoe Bay couple was selling their merchandise at this year’s Newport Seafood & Wine Festival, and the response was “awesome,” Heins said. They began contacting area businesses in the hope they would carry their products.

“We work with local businesses...what we refer to as lifestyle companies like surf shops, bike shops, fishing places. We’re not looking for large chains,” said Sanok. They also sell online, at SpecificallyPacific.com, but he said online prices are actually higher than the prices in the stores “because we want people to support the local businesses.”

Heins said, “My goal is to let it be known to people that this is all about loving the coast and embracing the lifestyle here. We don’t have the same kind of lifestyle as Portland or anywhere else.”

Sanok added, “One of the things we’ve heard from a lot of people is whether you’re a surfer, a kite boarder, a fisherman, a crabber or a cyclist, any of those different parts of the lifestyle, there really hasn’t been something before, an image or something, that has connected us all together.” The 101 logo does just that, he said. “We’re hearing consistently from people across the board…when they see this (101 logo), or they see someone that has one of the stickers, they might not have a surfboard on their car, but will look at it and say, ‘OK, they get this. They understand that this lifestyle is different than anywhere else in the country.’”